What a stupid comment. PCP does not, as far as I know, affect a person in nearly the same way as alcohol. Also, it was homemade liquor apparently, which is a far cry from say beer which is the only thing I associate with the term 'home brew'.

impaler:rwfan: While the comparison is not a great one I think most of you are missing the point. What the officer is trying to say is the drinkers don't know the alcohol content of what they are drinking so sometimes they drink more alcohol than they realize.

This makes it different than a lot of beers how? Beer strength generally varies from 3% to 8% (with outliers above and below).

Well, for starters, distilled spirits will have MUCH higher alcohol than the strongest beer. Erring on the alcohol content is more dangerous when in the ballpark of 40 or 100 proof than at 3-8% ABV.

No, he is not saying it has an unknown strength, he's alluding to the fact that poorly distilled alcohol can contain alcohols other than ethanol that fark you up bad (which is more rare than fork-lore would have one believe). Yet the bad effect here is just a regular effect of regular ethanol.

If she went blind, he would have had a point.

It could be elements of both. Once distilled, all of the volatile compounds are concentrated. With that, you have a stronger drink with chemicals in a concentration dangerous for consumption (acetone, for example). Either not dumping the heads and/or drinking too much too fast at high proof ethanol could lead to death.

ladyfortuna:What a stupid comment. PCP does not, as far as I know, affect a person in nearly the same way as alcohol. Also, it was homemade liquor apparently, which is a far cry from say beer which is the only thing I associate with the term 'home brew'.

Alcohol affects the GABA receptors, among other things. Phencyclidine is an NMDB receptor antagonist. So yes, dumb comment.

impaler:SpiderQueenDemon: Not knowing your ABV is like bringing your restored classic car to a show and not knowing the engine displacement. A high ABV is something to brag about, so any 'brewer with any sense of community or pride would take special pains to know, not just for the street cred, but also to gauge whether successive batches were improving at all.

Nope. I don't give a shat about the ABV. Well, very little anyway.

I brew it up. If it tastes great - great.

ABV is just about getting drunk. I go to the store for that.

Collecting gravity is beneficial for brewing because it's more data, and like all processes, you can use that to improve. For one, you can determine your efficiency, which can/will lead to better process, less malt, etc. Measuring gravity doesn't mean you are trying to chase that ABV up. A good brewer wants to know the gravity whether s/he is making a mild 3.5% beer or a 13% Belgian Quad. It will also lead to predictability if you keep halfway decent records. In time, there will be no more wondering "how's this batch going to turn out?" I realize everybody wants to do it their way, which is part of the reason to homebrew in the first place, I just thought I'd point out that aspiring for high ABV is by far not the only reason people measure gravity.

SpiderQueenDemon:Not knowing your ABV is like bringing your restored classic car to a show and not knowing the engine displacement. A high ABV is something to brag about, so any 'brewer with any sense of community or pride would take special pains to know, not just for the street cred, but also to gauge whether successive batches were improving at all.

Actually, in response to brantgoose's post above (on mobile, don't want to quote a wall-o-text), unless you're in a lab with access to a bunch of high-tech stuff, it's impossible to distill ethanol past 190 proof. Has to do with the boiling point of pure ethanol actually being a little higher than 95% ethanol and 5% water.

And home-distilled hooch is not nearly as dangerous as people would lead you to believe. It would be really simple to make, allegedly. Age it with some wood chips to absorb the fusel oils, and you should be good to go. In theory.

rwfan:While the comparison is not a great one I think most of you are missing the point. What the officer is trying to say is the drinkers don't know the alcohol content of what they are drinking so sometimes they drink more alcohol than they realize. That can lead to accidental death. Just like not knowing the strength of street drugs can lead to accidental overdose.

A hygrometer is $5 from Midwest Supplies and tells you your alcohol content. They even make fancy-boots $60 digital ones a homebrewer might get for her birthday from a concerned Grandma who worries she might not realize how strong her latest IPA is or a supportive Nana who is dearly hoping for an 11%+ ABV bourbon-casked winter lager to serve at the Christmas party, as the case may be. (I come from a family of Irish-German barmaids and alewives.)

Not knowing your ABV is like bringing your restored classic car to a show and not knowing the engine displacement. A high ABV is something to brag about, so any 'brewer with any sense of community or pride would take special pains to know, not just for the street cred, but also to gauge whether successive batches were improving at all. This isn't just a case of some lady pulling a Hendrix with iffy beer or, more likely, moonshine, but the authorities not caring to tell the difference between sketchy homebrewers just in it for booze n' lulz and proud adherents to one of humanity's most time-honored traditions.

In related news, looks like I can be a beer-snob about any-effing-thing...

rwfan:While the comparison is not a great one I think most of you are missing the point. What the officer is trying to say is the drinkers don't know the alcohol content of what they are drinking so sometimes they drink more alcohol than they realize. That can lead to accidental death. Just like not knowing the strength of street drugs can lead to accidental overdose.

What the hell?It's kind of our job as Farkers to miss the farking point. Are you new here?

While the comparison is not a great one I think most of you are missing the point. What the officer is trying to say is the drinkers don't know the alcohol content of what they are drinking so sometimes they drink more alcohol than they realize. That can lead to accidental death. Just like not knowing the strength of street drugs can lead to accidental overdose.

Homebrew subby or "hooch"? Home BREW requires a brewed beverage, this seems to be a DISTILLED one which makes it Hooch, Corn Likker, Potcheen, or 'Shine. And de fact that dat stuff'll kill you with a quickness, esepcially when made or aged wrong has been known for a long damn time. They don't call it "rotgut" for funsies ya know.

"She aspirated her stomach content, which clogged her airway," Mobley wrote in a trooper report posted online. No foul play is suspected....

"It's basically the PCP of alcohol," Mobley said. "You don't know what it's going to do to you or how it's going to affect you."

Sounds like this "PCP of alcohol" affected her exactly like one would expect alcohol to affect her. She didn't die from any OD, she died because she choked on her own vomit, something that happens all the time from good old regular alcohol.